America Has a Jobs Problem, and It's Not About AI

An analysis at the Washington Post suggests that America is facing a jobs crisis, and, no, it's not the idea that AI is going to put lots of people out of work. Instead, writes Jon Marcus, the real crisis is that the US is on the cusp of "the largest labor shortage in its history." One simple reason is demographics: "A protracted decline in birth rates is coinciding with a record wave of retirements," he writes. Meaning that in the coming years, the US won't have enough people to fill crucial jobs that AI cannot do—think nurses, doctors, teachers, engineers, pharmacists, mechanics, construction workers, etc.

"All of these people who keep a society functioning are the very people we're not going to have enough of," says Ron Hetrick of the labor market data company Lightcast. That gets into another aspect of the problem: a mismatch of skills among graduates. Colleges keep churning out business and finance majors while employers scramble for people trained in health care, trades, and technical fields. States are racing to respond with tuition incentives, loan help, and new workforce agencies, as industries from semiconductors to construction warn of unfilled, well-paying jobs. Read the full piece, which was produced by the Hechinger Report, an independent, nonprofit news organization.